New tape from 'Saddam'

A voice purported to be that of ousted president Saddam Hussein has said the US-led occupation forces in Iraq have reached "a dead end", in an audiotape broadcast on Arabiya television.

17 Nov 2003 06:26 GMT

The former Iraqi leader called for continued resistance

In Sunday's tape, Saddam calls on Iraqis to resist the occupying forces and warned of more deaths for US-led troops.

"Fighting them... is a legitimate, patriotic and humanitarian duty and the occupiers have no choice but to leave our country Iraq, the country of Arabs and Islam, as cursed losers," the speaker, who sounded like Saddam, said on al-Arabiya television.

"The path of jihad and resistance is the best path under God, human kind and history and is the only path which will guarantee the expulsion of the tyrannical foreign forces from our country and grant total freedom and sovereignty to our people in their land," Saddam said.

"The evil ones are at a dead end in Iraq after having imagined they were going out for a walk" when they launched the invasion on 20 March that led to Saddam's fall, he said.